Fighters’ Otani Matches Fastest-Ever Pitch in Japan Pro Baseball

Japanese professional baseball may have lost some its greatest players to the U.S. in recent years — including pitchers Masahiro Tanaka to the New York Yankees and Yu Darvish to the Texas Rangers — but it seems more great pitchers are coming up.

In an all-star game Saturday, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters right-hander Shohei Otani hurled a couple of fastballs at 162 kilometers an hour (100.7 miles and hour), matching the Japanese professional record and setting a new one for a Japanese player.